WWE Smackdown house show results
April 18, 2013
Glasgow, Scotland
Report by Jonathan Geddes, PWTorch reader

The arena was sold out, with lots of Cena, Sheamus, and C.M. Punk merch being worn. Lilian Garcia came out, welcomed us to the show, and sang Flower of Scotland to a warm response.

(1) Santino & Alex Riley & Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre beat Prime Time Players & Primo & Epico (w/Rosa Mendes) in an eight-man tag match. Easy-going opener with lots of comedy, and heat sequences on both Riley and McIntyre. McIntyre entered wearing a Scotland shirt and was in full babyface mode. Rosa seemed to get slightly confused early on, and cheered when one of the Players was being pinned. The ending came when both Drew and Santino hit the Cobra on the Colons for the pin.

After the match, The Shield ran out the crowd and attacked McIntyre, then promised to win the main event.

A Mark Henry promo aired, promising to defeat the Great Khali.

(2) Fandango beat Ted DiBiase. The Fandango theme was chanted heavily as he came out. DiBiase appeared to do a bit of Gangnam Style dancing in response. Straightforward basic match, won cleanly by Fandango. He gave his catchphrase afterwards.

We were told of a Twitter poll for the Del Rio-Swagger match later on, with the fans to decide whether Zeb Colter got to stay at ringside or not.

(3) Natalya beat Alicia Fox. Hornswoggle was the guest ring announcer. Fairly basic match, which included a sequence where Natalya tore out one of Fox’s hair extensions, followed by Fox chasing her around the ring. Eventually, Natalya reversed some Fox offense into a Sharpshooter for the win.

A Sheamus promo aired, saying he got the New Age Outlaws to help him crack The Shield.

(4) Mark Henry beat The Great Khali. Continents move faster than this match did. Part of our section was far more interested in two guys dressed as Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, who were posing for pics with various kids while making their way back to their seats. Henry and Khali did lots of stalling, a bear hug, and very little else. Henry with the pin after the World’s Strongest Slam, which finally got a reaction from the crowd.

(5) Randy Orton pinned Big Show. Big response for both guys. They didn’t do anything out the ordinary, but the atmosphere was great, with dueling chants and lots of heat for Orton’s comeback. He ducked Show’s big punch and hit an RKO for the pin. This was probably the match with the most heat all night.

An intermission followed.

(6) IC champion Wade Barrett pinned Justin Gabriel to retain the Intercontinental Title. For an Englishman, Barrett didn’t have nearly as much heel heat as you might have expected with the Scottish crowd. The crowd seemed underwhelmed with Gabriel, which was a shame since he looked very crisp in the ring. Barrett won clean after crotching Gabriel on the top rope and hitting the Bullhammer.

(7) Alberto Del Rio beat Jack Swagger in a No Disqualification match. Swagger cut a promo about immigrants and claimed that Colter would stand for Prime Minister in the future. Colter said “Hello, London” and claimed we were all the same, resulting in some serious heel heat. Big pop for Ricardo's introduction of Del Rio.The results of the Twitter poll revealed Colter was to be sent backstage, so off he went. A slow starter, but this built nicely and the crowd was really into it by the end. The No DQ meant they used a kendo stick, teased a chair shot, and Del Rio went into the steps. Good match, won by Del Rio with the cross arm-breaker after various reversals.

(8) Sheamus & New Age Outlaws beat The Shield via DQ in a six-man tag main event. Some comedy beforehand, with the Outlaws spotting the Hogan impersonator, and Gunn saying “If you smell…” before doing the “Suck it” spiel. Shield entered through the crowd. Slightly underwhelming main event, with a long heat sequence on Road Dogg Jesse James followed by Sheamus cleaning house. The Shield were then DQed for triple-teaming, an anti-climatic finish to say the least.

Afterward, The Outlaws used a chair to clear them off, before Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick on Reigns. The faces then celebrated with the fans to close the show.

It was a reasonable show, but it was lacking on starpower, and very few guys on the undercard really showed much, even by house show standards. The crowd was hot all night, but no one looked like a future star. This was one of the weaker in-ring shows I’ve seen, although it was still an entertaining night.

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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